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 RUSSIA The Court of Cassation Did Not Change the Sentence of a 69-Year-Old Jehovah's Witness From Novosibirsk—Six Years in a Penal Colony for His Faith May 30, 2024 Novosibirsk Region On May 29, 2024, the judicial panel of the Eighth Court of Cassation in Kemerovo upheld the verdict against Aleksandr Seredkin. The believer will continue to serve his sentence in the penal colony. Aleksandr attended the hearing via video conferencing. In the cassation appeal, the defendant's lawyer drew attention to the fact that there was no evidence of the believer's guilt in the case: "In the appealed judicial acts there are no indications of the presence of signs of extremism in the actions of Aleksandr Seredkin: both in actions and in words. How exactly a peaceful conversation about God in the circle of fellow believers jeopardized the constitutional order and security of the state is not specified in the appealed judicial acts". "On the contrary, all the actions and stat...

 RUSSIA  The Court in Zeya Sentenced Yevgeniy Sokolov to Three Years Suspended. The Man Defends his Beliefs in Two Courts May 30, 2024 Amur Region On May 29, 2024, Arina Fedorova, judge of the Zeya District Court of the Amur Region, sentenced Yevgeniy Sokolov, 48, to 3 years of suspended sentence. He was present at the last hearings via video conferencing, as he is simultaneously being tried in another criminal case in Voronezh—7400 kilometers from Zeya. The court found the man guilty of participating in the activities of an extremist organization. The believer was also assigned a probationary period of 3 years with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the activities of public organizations for 3 years and additional restriction of freedom for 10 months. The prosecutor requested a sentence of 3 years in a penal colony. The verdict has not entered into force. The Zeya case was initiated in December 2022. The accusation was ...

 AUSTRIA.   Another dangerous apostate terrorist arrested. Bomber caught: Wanted to kill ex-wife The man who carried out several bombings on a meeting house of Jehovah's Witnesses and a trailer's car has been arrested. The 55-year-old was a Jehovah's Witness himself for years and wanted to kill his wife after a maintenance dispute. In recent months, there have been several attacks on institutions of Jehovah's Witnesses: Since August 2023, three bombs had already been found in cars and houses of worship of Jehovah's Witnesses in Styria. Alimony dispute Now the perpetrator has been caught: he is a 55-year-old Styrian, he is an IT technician, comes from the district of Graz-Umgebung and was arrested on Wednesday at his workplace in the district of Leibnitz. He was a Jehovah's Witness himself from 1991 to 2011, was married to a woman from the religious community and has two children with her. However, after the divorce, he was expelled, a long-term alimony dispute f...

 CRIMEA  The last word of the defendant Alexander Litvinyuk in Armyansk November 25, 2022 Crimea From the courtroom Addressing the court with the last word, the believer said: "As a Jehovah's Witness, extremism in any of its manifestations is alien to me. I am a peaceful person and I have been proving this with my life for decades." Transcript of the court session in the Armenian City Court of the Republic of Crimea dated 11/25/2022 in the case 1-39/2022 on charges of Litvinyuk Alexander Viktorovich of committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Litvinyuk Alexander Viktorovich: Dear court! Dear participants of the process! First of all, I would like to thank you, Your Honor. You have explained to us, the defendants, many times how each stage of the trial should go. Thank you for not ceasing to be patient with us. I would also like to mention the work of your assistant Olesya for trying to help us, the defendants, not to...

 ALBANIA Evangelical Pastor Found Guilty of “Hate Speech” Against the Jehovah’s Witnesses 05/11/2024 Pastor Paulin Vilajeti had called the organization in a TV show a “dangerous Satanic cult” “sowing hatred” and “inciting suicide.” by Massimo Introvigne Only recently did Euronews Albania, a subsidiary of Euronews France, take out from its YouTube channel discriminatory expressions against the Jehovah’s Witnesses used by a guest in its popular talk show “Good Morning Albanians,” as ordered by the Commissioner for Protection Against Discrimination (CPAD) on January 25, 2024 (“Bitter Winter” has seen a copy of the decision). On May 18, 2023, one of the topics discussed in “Good Morning, Albanians” was the yearly report on religious freedom that had just been issued by the U.S. Department of State. One of the guests invited to discuss the matter was Pastor Paulin Vilajeti of the Evangelical Brotherhood in Albania. As the CPAD noted, Pastor Vilajeti is a “public person” as he is “regula...

 CRIMEA  The last word of the defendant Alexander Dubovenko in Crimea November 25, 2022 Crimea From the courtroom Speaking before the court, the believer noted: "Jehovah's Witnesses are mistakenly labeled as extremists. The task that our head, Jesus Christ, entrusted to us: "Go and publicly proclaim the good news and prepare disciples," would be impossible if we showed hostility to people." Transcript of the court session in the Armenian City Court of the Republic of Crimea dated 11/25/2022 in the case 1-39/2022 on the charges of Dubovenko Alexander Fedorovich and others. of committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Alexander F. Dubovenko: Your Honor, dear participants in the process. At the beginning of my last words, I would like to thank all those present, all those who were at this process and participated in one way or another. I was wondering where I should start my last word. And I decided that it was...

 RUSSIA  The last word of the defendant Dmitry Zagulin in Birobidzhan November 28, 2022 Jewish JSC From the courtroom Drawing the court's attention to the absurdity of the charges, the believer said: "How can those who, out of love for their neighbor, refuse to take up arms, even at the cost of their lives, be put on a par with those who are looking for an excuse to unleash interethnic, religious or some other discord?" Transcript of the court session in the Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region dated 11/28/2022 on the case № 1-8/2022 (1-65/2021; 1-609/2020) on the charges of Dmitry Nikolaevich Zagulin and others. of committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Dmitry Nikolaevich Zagulin: Dear court. I would like to start my last word with a short example. A young mother with a child goes to the store, to the toy department. They approach the shelves where soft toys are located. My daughter's eye...

 RUSSIA  The case of Serdtseva and Smirnova in Shakhunya Larisa Serdtseva Updated: May 27, 2024 FULL NAME: Larisa Nikolaevna Serdtseva Date of birth: July 11, 1975 Current status in the criminal case: suspect Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: 282.2 (2) Biography Larisa Serdtseva, a mother of many children, became a defendant in a criminal case because of her beliefs in February 2024. Larisa was born in July 1975 in the city of Neftekamsk (Bashkiria). She grew up with her older brother. Their father worked in the oil and gas industries, their mother worked as a salesman. After school, Larisa became a seamstress. Later, she worked in various fields, and at the time of the initiation of the criminal case, she worked for a cleaning company. During her life, Larisa had to live in different cities of the Urals: Agidel, Urengoy and Muravlenko. In 1998, she married Vladimir, and after a while they moved to Shakhunya, Nizhny Novgorod region, her husband's homelan...

 RUSSIA  November 28, 2022 Jewish JSC From the courtroom "If I am recognized as an extremist, how many years will I have to wait to be rehabilitated?" the believer addressed the court, recalling in his last word the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in the USSR and their complete rehabilitation in 1992. Transcript of the court session in the Birobidzhan District Court of the EAO dated 11/28/2022 in the case № 1-8/2022 (1-65/2021; 1-609/2020) on the charges of Aliev Alam Abdulaziz and others. of committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Aliev Alam Abdulaziz: Your Honor! Although the case you considered is a criminal one, at the same time, all the actions I committed are not criminally punishable. And therefore, the corpus delicti is not formed. The goals and motives of my actions, as I have already stated, are inextricably linked to my worship of Jehovah God. I worship him not the way I want to, but the way he establi...

 KAZAKHSTAN Conscientious objector's 6 months in military detention 24 May 2024 In autumn 2022, Jehovah's Witness Daniil Smal presented the Conscription Office a certificate from the Jehovah's Witness Centre that he is a "religious minister". This should have exempted him from conscription. He was summoned on 17 May 2023, and forcibly transferred to a military unit. He was freed only in November 2023 when Almaty Military Garrison Court ruled his conscription illegal. The Military Court rejected the military's appeal in April 2024. Smal's conscientious objection "may lead to mass negative consequences and wide public resonance", the military claimed. Jehovah's Witness Daniil Smal spent from 17 May 2023 in detention in a military unit until Almaty Military Garrison Court ruled on 9 November 2023 that the call-up decision in his case should be revoked and he should be freed. On 16 April 2024, the Military Court rejected the Conscription Office...